Dubai’s managed to snag yet another World’s First, as Dubai Municipality signs an agreement with Neutral Fuels LLC to replace diesel in its vehicles with clean biodiesel. The city’s made its way into the history books by being the first in the world to adopt biodiesel made 100% locally from 100% waste cooking oil.

Neutral Fuels have been producing biodiesel in the UAE since 2010, and are known to be the first biodiesel manufacturer ever to be licensed in the Emirate. For those who haven’t quite grasped what exactly Biodiesel is, it’s a clean, sustainable biofuel produced by reacting used cooking oils with methanol in the presence of a sodium methylate catalyst.

Karl W Feilder, CEO & Chairman of Neutral Fuels, said, “This is a fantastic day for the UAE, for Dubai and for biodiesel. In adopting biodiesel – which doesn’t even require any engine modifications on diesel vehicles – the Municipality is creating a sustainability benchmark which the rest of the world should note.”

Biodiesel – which doesn’t cost any more than traditional diesel – is the quickest and simplest method available for vehicle owners to decrease the earth’s reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biodiesel made from used vegetable cooking oil reduces CO2, which is causing the temperature of the planet to rise and melting the ice caps. A move to clean biodiesel means less CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere which means less global warming.